Death rate

Death rate
Death Death (d[e^]th), n. [OE. deth, dea[eth], AS. de['a][eth]; akin to OS. d[=o][eth], D. dood, G. tod, Icel. dau[eth]i, Sw. & Dan. d["o]d, Goth. dau[thorn]us; from a verb meaning to die. See {Die}, v. i., and cf. {Dead}.] 1. The cessation of all vital phenomena without capability of resuscitation, either in animals or plants. [1913 Webster]

Note: Local death is going on at all times and in all parts of the living body, in which individual cells and elements are being cast off and replaced by new; a process essential to life. General death is of two kinds; death of the body as a whole (somatic or systemic death), and death of the tissues. By the former is implied the absolute cessation of the functions of the brain, the circulatory and the respiratory organs; by the latter the entire disappearance of the vital actions of the ultimate structural constituents of the body. When death takes place, the body as a whole dies first, the death of the tissues sometimes not occurring until after a considerable interval. --Huxley. [1913 Webster]

2. Total privation or loss; extinction; cessation; as, the death of memory. [1913 Webster]

The death of a language can not be exactly compared with the death of a plant. --J. Peile. [1913 Webster]

3. Manner of dying; act or state of passing from life. [1913 Webster]

A death that I abhor. --Shak. [1913 Webster]

Let me die the death of the righteous. --Num. xxiii. 10. [1913 Webster]

4. Cause of loss of life. [1913 Webster]

Swiftly flies the feathered death. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]

He caught his death the last county sessions. --Addison. [1913 Webster]

5. Personified: The destroyer of life, -- conventionally represented as a skeleton with a scythe. [1913 Webster]

Death! great proprietor of all. --Young. [1913 Webster]

And I looked, and behold a pale horse; and his name that sat on him was Death. --Rev. vi. 8. [1913 Webster]

6. Danger of death. ``In deaths oft.'' --2 Cor. xi. 23. [1913 Webster]

7. Murder; murderous character. [1913 Webster]

Not to suffer a man of death to live. --Bacon. [1913 Webster]

8. (Theol.) Loss of spiritual life. [1913 Webster]

To be carnally minded is death. --Rom. viii. 6. [1913 Webster]

9. Anything so dreadful as to be like death. [1913 Webster]

It was death to them to think of entertaining such doctrines. --Atterbury. [1913 Webster]

And urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death. --Judg. xvi. 16. [1913 Webster]

Note: Death is much used adjectively and as the first part of a compound, meaning, in general, of or pertaining to death, causing or presaging death; as, deathbed or death bed; deathblow or death blow, etc. [1913 Webster]

{Black death}. See {Black death}, in the Vocabulary.

{Civil death}, the separation of a man from civil society, or the debarring him from the enjoyment of civil rights, as by banishment, attainder, abjuration of the realm, entering a monastery, etc. --Blackstone.

{Death adder}. (Zo["o]l.) (a) A kind of viper found in South Africa ({Acanthophis tortor}); -- so called from the virulence of its venom. (b) A venomous Australian snake of the family {Elapid[ae]}, of several species, as the {Hoplocephalus superbus} and {Acanthopis antarctica}.

{Death bell}, a bell that announces a death. [1913 Webster]

The death bell thrice was heard to ring. --Mickle.

{Death candle}, a light like that of a candle, viewed by the superstitious as presaging death.

{Death damp}, a cold sweat at the coming on of death.

{Death fire}, a kind of ignis fatuus supposed to forebode death. [1913 Webster]

And round about in reel and rout, The death fires danced at night. --Coleridge.

{Death grapple}, a grapple or struggle for life.

{Death in life}, a condition but little removed from death; a living death. [Poetic] ``Lay lingering out a five years' death in life.'' --Tennyson.

{Death rate}, the relation or ratio of the number of deaths to the population. [1913 Webster]

At all ages the death rate is higher in towns than in rural districts. --Darwin.

{Death rattle}, a rattling or gurgling in the throat of a dying person.

{Death's door}, the boundary of life; the partition dividing life from death.

{Death stroke}, a stroke causing death.

{Death throe}, the spasm of death.

{Death token}, the signal of approaching death.

{Death warrant}. (a) (Law) An order from the proper authority for the execution of a criminal. (b) That which puts an end to expectation, hope, or joy.

{Death wound}. (a) A fatal wound or injury. (b) (Naut.) The springing of a fatal leak.

{Spiritual death} (Scripture), the corruption and perversion of the soul by sin, with the loss of the favor of God.

{The gates of death}, the grave. [1913 Webster]

Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? --Job xxxviii. 17.

{The second death}, condemnation to eternal separation from God. --Rev. ii. 11.

{To be the death of}, to be the cause of death to; to make die. ``It was one who should be the death of both his parents.'' --Milton.

Syn: {Death}, {Decease}, {Demise}, {Departure}, {Release}.

Usage: Death applies to the termination of every form of existence, both animal and vegetable; the other words only to the human race. Decease is the term used in law for the removal of a human being out of life in the ordinary course of nature. Demise was formerly confined to decease of princes, but is now sometimes used of distinguished men in general; as, the demise of Mr. Pitt. Departure and release are peculiarly terms of Christian affection and hope. A violent death is not usually called a decease. Departure implies a friendly taking leave of life. Release implies a deliverance from a life of suffering or sorrow. [1913 Webster]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • death rate — ➔ rate1 * * * death rate UK US noun [C] (also mortality rate) ► INSURANCE the number of people who die in a particular group or area in a particular period of time. This figure is often used by insurance companies to calculate risk:… …   Financial and business terms

  • death rate — death rates N COUNT The death rate is the number of people per thousand who die in a particular area during a particular period of time. By the turn of the century, Pittsburgh had the highest death rate in the United States …   English dictionary

  • death rate — n 1.) the number of deaths for every 100 or every 1000 people in a particular year and in a particular place →↑birth rate 2.) the number of deaths each year from a particular disease or in a particular group ▪ childhood death rates …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • death rate — death ,rate noun count the number of deaths in a particular area in one year …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • death rate — ► NOUN ▪ the number of deaths per one thousand people per year …   English terms dictionary

  • death rate — n. the number of deaths per year per thousand of population in a given community, area, or group: sometimes other units of time or population are used …   English World dictionary

  • Death rate — The number of deaths in the population divided by the average population (or the population at midyear) is the crude death rate. In 1994, for example, the crude death rate per 1,000 population was 8.8 in the United States, 7.1 in Australia, etc.… …   Medical dictionary

  • death rate — UK / US noun [countable] Word forms death rate : singular death rate plural death rates the number of deaths in a particular area in one year …   English dictionary

  • death-rate — mirtingumas statusas T sritis ekologija ir aplinkotyra apibrėžtis Populiacijos individų, žuvusių per laiko vienetą, skaičius. Potencinis mirtingumas rodo, kiek tam tikros rūšies individų žūsta idealioje populiacijoje per tam tikrą laikotarpį.… …   Ekologijos terminų aiškinamasis žodynas

  • Death rate, infant — The number of children dying under a year of age divided by the number of live births that year. The infant death rate is also called the infant mortality rate. The infant mortality rate is an important measure of the well being of infants,… …   Medical dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”